


The world I wish I had understood before...

by Froggie_princess



Category: sad story - Fandom
Genre: Crying, Freedom, Loss of Parent(s), Other, Sad Stories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 16:42:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28709895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Froggie_princess/pseuds/Froggie_princess
Summary: The story is a flashback of a refugee who now lives in a refugee camp and is waiting for citizenship. Will the memories or the building guilt of not understanding eat her within.
Relationships: parent and child - Relationship





	The world I wish I had understood before...

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Between](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/741213) by Clare Atkins. 



“Baba come and catch me”. I yell bantering while waving his book in his face, Baba smiles from joy with a smile that could light up the whole room. He’s chasing me through the living room jokingly and threatening me with tickles. Mama is in the kitchen, cooking her amazing bamia and yelling out “Stop messing around,” as it was almost time for dinner. We stopped playing around and gathered around the dinner table. Whilst enjoying mama’s stew, there was a knock on the door so loud I thought the door would break off its hinges. Baba and mama both had the same dreadful look on their faces. 

What’s going on?

Everything was a blur

Mama pulls me out of my seat

Pushing me into my room

With her hands covering my mouth

As the door is breaking down

Screaming from unknown men

With guns that look ready to shoot anything and anyone

I look through the small gap

In the door Baba is held by two men

One man was in front of him

I don’t understand what’s happening

All I want is to reach out for him

Protect him for these bad guys

Baba sees me, reaching out for him and shakes his head softly.

With a warm look, he whispers “أحبك (i love you).”

Within the blink of an eye, he’s gone... forever. Blood splatters everywhere Covering the white walls like red paint The men look around the house and then as quick as they came, they vanish without a trace, Leaving without any regrets of what just happened. Laughing and high-fiving without caring for the effects they’ve caused In the shock of everything my mind starts to wander of to a few days ago when things started to change, I remember:

**....mama and baba were arguing while I played with my dolls. I looked out from my room and saw mama in tears with baba’s hands in his hair, looking frustrated and worried. Mama was screaming how he will get himself killed because of the book and baba replied calmly about how the book can show the world what we are suffering with everyday and how we deserve no violence or war. Mama cried out that she would rather not be heard and live her life out, knowing that we could have a safer quiet life and blending with the crowd, rather than have baba turn up dead and be more exposed to the world with the government knowing who we were. Baba exclaimed though that we can all live our lives out normally without the government even knowing who wrote the book, whilst the rest of the world knows and comes to save the country.  
**

**Mama tried calming down and looked at baba, if eyes could kill, baba wouldn’t have been alive. She softly says “What if this doesn’t work? What if the government found out who you are? What about Zahra?” Baba’s face turned even more distressed as he fell onto the couch with his face covered by his hands. That’s when I walked in and they both turned and looked at me... Mama takes her hand off my mouth and looks at me with tears on her face, she hugs me gently but tightly. Baba is gone, gone forever. We both cried for what felt like hours on end. The next day I wake up with the sun shining through, still in mama’s arms and her face still stained from endless tears. It’s wasn’t a dream, baba’s still gone and nothing can bring him back. I wish I had said I love you back one last time. Mama woke up from my silent cries and holds my face with her warm hands. “We need to leave, they know who we are, we need to leave....now,”** she said shaking. 

Suddenly I was shoved aggressively with someone yelling my name, I blinked my eyes to see my classroom and Anahita looking worried as ever. “Hey Zahra , are you okay ? You’ve been dead silent for the past hour!,” Anahita said worriedly. I force a smile to my face “Yeah, I’m okay, I’m always okay so don’t worry Anahita” I joked. Anahita looked relieved, I’m glad she doesn’t know the truth and I hope she never does. I hope she never has to experience the truth herself

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written for English as well lol but was inspired from “ Between us “ by Clare Atkins. Tbh I won’t recommend this book to anyone who is interested of the topic of refugees, it’s basically about the everyday life of a girl and her everyday experience of living in Australia. It’s goes to flashback of her past but not enough to satisfy the reader in my opinion. Pretty boring, especially since the main character lives in a camp but doesn’t even go about the living conditions ( Australian government wants to cover up how they treat people there ). The writer explains how she wants people to understand the situation of refugee and represent the community ( “She apparently got insider information but it feels like they don’t use within the story”) but yet fails to convey that message immensely. Anyways sorry about the rant, the book annoys me so much. It fails to tell the true extent of refugee and only gives 1 percent .


End file.
